Chapters:

Elena shook out her curls as she got out of
the shower, even before she enveloped her luscious body with a
towel. The sunlight streamed through the tiny window in the
bathroom and she knew it was going to be one of those incredible
days. She let her hair air dry and headed into her bedroom, where
her faded jeans and print tee-shirt waited. After running the
towel over her body, she reached into her bureau for her light
blue bra and panty set.

Should she wear them? She had to go to the
community service center to do cleanup chores. Royal the foreman
would be waiting for her and damn, she didn't want to be late
because he might write her up for it. She sighed, remembering
when he had threatened to do that just last week because her mind
hadn't been on her work. But it was his own damn fault because
her eyes had been on his jeans which sculpted so nicely around
his ass. Royal had a lot of nice looking muscles having worked
hard outdoors in all types of climates and settings his thirty
some years on this planet but his ass, definitely something she
wanted to grab hold of before she rode him or he rode
her.

Didn't make any difference in her sultry
daydreams, she wove to pass the hot summer days
away.

His abs were hard enough to bounce a
quarter off of, no doubt. His back muscles, nice and tight and
muscles roped his arms. His face had been chiseled out of rock,
sharply lined in a way more ruggedly feral than handsome. Royal
wouldn't win any beauty contests, not with the jagged line of
silver that curled around one of his eyes and with his shadow,
but his eyes pierced periwinkle blue and his mouth curved into a
sexy smile on rare occasions.

Just one smile her way had been enough for
her to notice a delicious wetness between her thighs, dampening
her panties. But he didn't smile that often.

No, instead he was a taskmaster who barked
orders to her, mostly to sweep floors and clean out closets that
held an inventory of items that had once been useful but were now
discarded relics. Meanwhile, Royal would be hanging around
shooting the breeze to the one woman who had caught his
attention.

Lynette Powers, who had been in Elena's
high school class a couple years ago and had made her life
miserable. She and her crew of followers had made it their
mission to taunt those deemed inferior to them including Elena
who had grown up on the other side of town near the river bank.
Her family hadn't had much so she hadn't worn new clothes to
school like Lynette and her set, which haunted the strip mall
shops that catered to those who lived near the
foothills.

Well Lynette liked to drive fast cars and
her daddy had brought her a beaut of a Porsche She looked so damn
smart in her designer jeans and her finely cut sweaters which she
wore around town even when she hadn't been zooming through the
network of roads in and out of town, kicking up dust. Royal spent
time with her and Elena had been sure they were sleeping together
but that Lynette probably hid the affair from her parents, who
were Wyatt and Sophia Powers One of the town's prominent couples
whose names were written up in gold trim inside the blue book
that detailed the only people in Wild Forks who
mattered.

After all, Royal wasn't the kind of guy you
brought home to your parents, not if your father owned nearly
every financial institution in the county. No, what Lynette's
father wanted for her was a match that he and her future father
in law would concoct over brandy and cigars that would bring more
status and wealth into both families. If her father even knew
that she was spreading her legs for Royal…he'd be run out of Wild
Forks on what were left of his legs after a couple of thugs
working for Wyatt took a crow bar to them.

But there was no telling Royal
that…something about Lynette intoxicated him, maybe it had been
her unattainability to most men in his class, maybe it had been
the danger he put himself in just to be close…men were all damn
fools after all.

Still, Elena kind of liked this particular
fool…when he wasn't bossing her around the work
assignment.

She sighed, looking at her clock and
deciding after putting her hair in a pony tail and grabbing her
cap, that it was time to get running.

Royal watched as Lynette pulled her car out
of the driveway and took off down the street, probably heading
out of town to do some shopping. .

Now he had thought of all the ways to get
out of it even though he knew he should have accepted it. Lynette
was what was called a high stepping filly, regally bred and aware
of it with every move that she made. Even when they had hit the
sheets, she had made him aware of that too.

And she didn't ride him much different than
she drove her car. Elegant and proper more than down and dirty.
In fact she had retreated to the bathroom to clean up right after
he had climaxed inside a condom and left him to do the same,
within seconds of extricating himself from his
embrace.

But Lynette, if he hung around with her, he
might be able to make more out of his life than just serving as a
construction foreman, his current career move. Maybe he could own
his own operation some day, becoming an architect maybe, and take
on some wealthy clientele.

If he wanted to stay in the construction
industry at all.

Elena had parked her car in the parking lot
and then rushed to the center, passing one of Lynette's friends
who flashed her a snooty look as she passed, Elena could feel the
chill but then that wasn't an unusual experience to have with
Lynette's crowd. She continued onward, her hands in her pockets
until she looked up and saw Royal leaning against the wall, lean
but muscled, down to his thighs encased in denim.

She sucked in her breath because when he
turned around and saw her there, he'd probably bark an order at
her soon enough. Royal was forbidden to women like her, because
his eyes were looking upward the ladder at the next rung to grab
hold of even if right now it meant sliding between the waxed legs
of the ice princess.

Elena was no angel herself but she didn't
have a chance growing up. Her mother had brought a litany of her
boyfriends into her home and they lasted until they started
looking at Elena too long. Not that her mother cared that her
lovers were lusting after her daughter but because she thought
that Elena must have been doing something to attract
them.

But what was there to like about pushing a
chair against the door knob of your bedroom door because more
than one inebriated or just horny guy had wandered there one
night after her mother passed out. Elena had been felt up inside
the bathroom when one of her mom's boyfriends had slid in the
partly open door and come up behind her to encase her breasts in
his sweaty palms. She could see him in the cracked mirror and
definitely feel him sliding his hands underneath her pajama top
to pinch her nipples.

She had pushed him off of her and ran out
of there, hiding in her bedroom. Her mother had knocked on her
bedroom door to leave her boyfriends alone and get into the
kitchen to cook up some breakfast for them.

And then there had been Tex….

But before she could think about that guy,
Royal turned around and saw her and sure enough, he didn't look
friendly.

"You're late Elena…"

She tossed her ponytail back.

"I'm here aren't I?"

He folded his arms.

"You know they could revoke your probation
if you don't report in on time."

She bit her lip. Oh yeah, the probation
deal, she had gotten 200 community service hours for vandalizing
Tex's car with some spray paint. She didn't have the money to pay
for the damages so she was working it off by putting hours at the
Center, until she cleared her debt.

"I'm only five minutes late."

He sighed, shaking his head.

"You know if you hadn't dinged that guy's
car you wouldn't be here…you'd be out with your friends at the
mall."

She snorted.

"I don't have any friends…and I don't go to
malls," she said, "Actually my father was a builder before he
died and he taught me a lot…some of which I
remember."

He seemed surprised to hear that because
they never sat back and compared life stories. He made
assumptions about her that were mostly wrong and she admired his
how his ass fit in his jeans, and that nice bulge up front, the
one her fingers itched to touch.

"Yeah right…I seen you together…or rather I
heard you inside the Center once."

If that bothered him, he didn't let on but
she remembered what it had been like to walk into the barn and
hear noises in an old classroom which she at first thought had
been made by some kids who'd wandered in.

Until she remembered that it was early
morning and then she had heard a woman's voice, a whisper really,
then a moan.

"I heard you ask her to take you in
deeper…somewhere…was it her mouth or her…"

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Elena…what the two of us do together is
our business, not anyone else's."

She snorted.

"Then find a motel…or maybe she can invite
you in her bedroom suite up at the manor."

He looked away when she said that and she
almost regretted her words. But not quite. Royal needed to know
the score with women liked Lynette and think about it before
going any further down that path.

She started to walk away to grab some old
rags and cleaner to clean up some dirt which was much better than
listening to it.

"Later," was all she said figuring she had
used up enough words on him.

Royal watched her go, dressed in her
uniform of faded jeans and a shirt, looking unassuming, Elena
never looked like she wanted to draw attention to herself. She
had been assigned to work under him by the community service
center which handled all alternative sentencing. All he knew was
that she had copped a plea to vandalism which would remain on her
record until she completed some probation and paid the
restitution fine through her community service.

She didn't appear violent or particularly
high strung nor did she wear an attitude with him, which was
different than what he expected. After all, he had seen photos of
the dude's car that got smashed. One of her mother's live in
boyfriends. But she had proven to be spirited though not in a
malicious way, just because it seemed like part of her nature,
much like her wildly curly dark hair and her hazel eyes with
hints of emerald when they lit up. Her oval shaped face, strongly
lined with a pair of full lips that curled into a nice smile when
she allowed them.

Her body, curved mightily beneath her work
clothes, her legs tapered off nicely into her work boots. But her
clothes were well worn, like his own and her hands were callused,
so he knew she had worked hard someplace.

His jeans had tightened when he watched her
walk away from him, because he had thought what she'd look like
without clothes, her breasts swaying gently as she walked and her
ass, ripe and full.

He forced those thoughts out of his head
because he knew he was treading on dangerous ground. He had a
role to play in this temporary working relationship with Elena
and that didn't include screwing the hired help. Not that he
hadn't thought about it quite a bit lately…What it'd be like to
feel those luscious lips wearing just a hint of gloss on his
mouth, or even better wrapped around his dick, as he sunk slowly
inside her mouth while her hands were cupping his ass pulling him
closer to her.

Lynette didn't like sucking dick. She had
done it once to make him happy and then spit out his semen, in a
towel she kept with her.

Royal sighed watching Elena disappear into
the barn and went back to his own work. Getting his mind off of
where it had no business going and on some of the more mundane
tasks he had to do this morning.

Elena scrubbed the window sills and saw the
rags come up dark, from all the dirt and grime that had
accumulated there. The Center had fallen into disuse for a few
years until funding had been donated by the Powers and the deal
had been worked out with the court systems to recruit volunteers
from those with community service to work off.

Delinquents like her.

Not that she minded all that much because
she remembered all the hours she had spent at the Center as a
child, sitting at tables getting paint on her hands, while she
worked on crafts and scrapes on her knees from running around in
the playground. As she grew up, there were times spent with her
friends, who'd smoke cigarettes, passing one around while they
hung out behind the building. But that grew boring after a while
and she had gone inside to sit on the fringes of a class on
spinning tie-dyed shirts or making paintings out of sand dyed an
array of stunning colors.

But now the Center had been closed for a
few years and much of the furniture that hadn't been put in
storage had been covered with dusty tarps and some mice had made
a home for themselves in one of the cupboards under the sink in
the kitchen. A lot of the work had been done and the place was
starting to shape up…and a lot of that was due to Royal, she had
to admit.

Though she was loathe doing that concerning
the way he cracked the whip with his work crews. She stopped
scrubbing for a minute, to rub her arm muscles, which had tensed
up from the exercise, and the way the sunlight breached the
window, with only a semblance of heat, it felt nice on her
skin.

In the afternoon, it would get stifling hot
inside the building because the air conditioner hadn't been the
first item on the list of repairs. Royal had put fans throughout
the building but they mainly circulated hot stale air. Luckily at
least the man had enough of a clue to provide them with plenty of
bottled drinking water.

The work was tedious in its repetition so
her mind often wandered. ..away from her home life which she
didn't like thinking about and now that she had turned 18, she
could get her own place maybe…if she could get a job once she got
this off of her record. If she could find one considering the
recession had bit down hard on Wild Forks and hadn't let go
yet.

Sighing, she tore her mind away from those
thoughts and focused on Royal…because as dictatorial as he had
proven to be…he came in awfully nice wrapping. And she was more
than curious about what it'd be like to unwrap him… Probably much
different than it had been with Tex who she had been with…twice
before the asshole had said he had to leave to return to his…wife
in Amarillo.

Her mother had nearly taken a skillet to
him but Elena had settled for his car because he had said all
those words to her…when he had peeled her clothes right off of
her as she stood still for him. He had bruised her mouth with his
kisses, filled the air with intoxicating scents, intermingling
tobacco, mint with something much more primal. When he had taken
her that first time on the couch, she'd been a virgin and her
mother had been working late that night. She'd never known what
it would be like to have a man actually inside of her, or at
least a piece of him…that her leg muscles would ache to the point
of spasm from when he'd pushed them apart to allow him to slide
between them. That his hands were so rough from outdoor living
when they caressed her…down there, not nearly long enough to do
her any good before he thrust his erection inside of
her.

And talk about hurting, man it had burned
her when he had pushed his way inside of her pussy. A sharpness
to it that almost made her cry out even as her eyes dripped
moisture but then it hadn't been so bad, and Tex had whispered to
her that it would only get better each time. She hoped so because
she had felt raw in between her thighs for a couple days
afterward…he had left whisker burns on her breasts where he had
nuzzled them.

He hadn't worn anything and after he pushed
her into the cushions with his weight and the thrusts that sent
him deeper inside of her, he had gone rigid just before warm
fluid spurted inside her.

She knew then that she could have gotten
pregnant but it had all happened so fast, she hadn't thought to
ask but next time he came to her for release, she told him to
sheathe up first. Her mother had her by accident and made her
know it every day of her life back to her earliest memories…she
wasn't about to relive her mother's own mistakes.

"Hey there, how's your work coming
along?"

Elena looked up and saw Royal leaning
against the door jamb watching her, making her mouth water
because she couldn't help herself. After all, what woman would
look at him and not want him?

She just wanted a piece of him, not a
lifelong commitment or anything like that. She wasn't her mother
after all, looking to men for happiness or security. But men like
him didn't look around him, they just looked upward and that
meant that women liked Lynette rocked their worlds.

She shot him a look that she felt should
wither him but it didn't.

"Just dandy…how's this thing you got going
with what's her name?"

He didn't get upset or tell her to mind her
own business, he just smiled, his eyes dancing with amusement
most likely at her expense.

"Ah, why are you asking," he said, "Is this
work that boring or is it your life?"

She folded her arms and stared at
him.

"I just think that guys like you should
stick to what you know and it's not women like her who dally
around with guys like you while they're waiting for their daddies
arranging their marriages like business mergers."

He just stared at her.

"Wow…that's really something Elena…did you
work on that all morning?"

Her cheeks flushed.

"No…I just know the rules of what it means
to live here that's all," she said, "and you should
too."

He just laughed and shook his head at
her.

"Like the one you broke with one of your
mama's live in lovers," he said, "After all, why else would you
smash his car?"

Her mouth dropped.

"How do you…oh yeah, I'm sure you have a
copy of the file..."

He stroked his jaw line with a
thumb.

"Saw the photos…very impressive but you
wound up working all your time here to pay it off."

She shrugged.

"It was worth it…guy was a
jerk."

He digested that and then looked at her
carefully.

"So you fucked him and then he left you,
right?"

Now her skin really began to flush to a
rosy pink.

"No, he fucked me a couple of times and
decided to go back to his wife," she said, "My mama kicked him
out, with his toothbrush and razor."

He furrowed his brow.

"I don't think that's included in the
report. Did your mother ever find out that he bedded her
daughter?"

Elena shook her head.

"Nah…and since she chased him with a
skillet, I wasn't going to share that information."

"Good thinking…well why he wouldn't
leave…he'd gotten his fill of the both of you and his wife could
have ruined him in court."

"What are you going to do when she's had
her fill of you?"

He just looked at her.

"My, you're saucy for someone who's court
mandated to do community service under me."

She returned to scrubbing her
window.

"You're so right. Maybe you should just let
me finish my work so you don't need to write me up to the
courts."

He shook his head again.

"I thought I was going to have trouble with
you when I saw you," he said, "but I guess I underestimated how
much."

She sighed.

"I'm doing my work aren't I and I've
noticed that you've given me the grimiest jobs not that I mind.
Makes the days go faster."

He nodded.

"Well thank goodness for small favors
then."

He walked away then and returned to
whatever he'd been doing before he came to check up on her. She
admired his ass as he walked away. The kind of muscles a guy
didn't buy from a gym, but got through working the same hard day
over and over for years. So Royal might dip into the pool of
wealth for some action but he'd earned his own way.

She'd love it if he dipped that wick of his
into her but she'd have to settle for some idle daydreaming
instead.

Royal sat under the grand oak tree in front
of the Center, the one which had sprouted huge branches that
sprawled over its roof. Any one of which would take down a chunk
of roof if it broke off for some reason and fell. He had warned
the Powers about that but they had just shrugged it
off.

Pretty stupid considering Wild Forks sat
smack in the middle of Tornado Alley. Not that there had been any
significant twisters lately but they were always living on
borrowed time. They struck targets apparently at random,
devastating someone's house while sparing the one next to it…but
the Center remained a vulnerable target. He looked up at the
sky…which barely broke its bright blueness with a wisp of a cloud
but all that could change in a flash. Texan weather proved to be
mercurial in the summer months and despite the fair weather, the
next storm could blow in within five minutes and send a torrent
of rain to flood stream banks and hail that could dent
cars.

Royal figured that some people were just
like storms, unpredictable in nature and filled with pent up
energy just waiting to be unleashed like one particular woman he
knew. Elena had given off that about her as soon as he met her,
her lovely eyes stormy and her expression tense beneath her
careful smile. She'd worn a dress at that first meeting after her
court appointed lawyer told her it'd make a better impression on
him but all he'd thought about was what it'd be like to slowly
slide the hem of that dress up her muscled legs, until his hands
cupped her ass, pulling her closer to him. What it'd be like to
slip his fingers underneath her panties to caress her lips,
guarding access to her, stroking her gently at first to hear her
cry out before thrusting a finger up inside of her moist
tightness.

He didn't sit there fantasizing about
fingering every woman who worked in the program but Elena had
been very different, inside of her there'd been some part of her
he'd wanted to know better. He didn't understand it even though
he'd fucked his share of women and thought one wasn't really so
much different than the next. But he wanted her even as he kept
telling himself to stay away

After all, he was her supervisor on her
community service stint, nothing more than that.

Elena had eaten her lunch out on the back
steps of the Center just some leftovers she had tossed together
before her mother woke up. She knew when she returned home that
her mama's latest boyfriend would be laying back on the couch
drinking a cold beer. Her mama would be working as a secretary at
a real estate office that hadn't seen much business in the past
year. It kept her busy and it brought home a paycheck at least as
long as it remained open.

The sun baked down on the town as it always
did this time of year but the breeze hinted of rain later on, by
evening. Not that late afternoon thunderstorms were uncommon in
these parts, intense but never lasted very long.

It would break up the monotony of the day
but as she crumpled up her bag and tossed it into the trash bin,
she looked around her knowing the streets were quiet because most
of the people had gone inside to escape the daily
heat.

She entered back into the building and
returned to the old community room that she had been cleaning
earlier and headed to the closet which when she opened it, a
musty smell maybe of mothballs rushed out of its confinement
towards her. As her eyes adjusted, she looked around and saw
sealed boxes stacked together, next to the odd lamp or book
shelf. She blew a tendril of hair out of her way and settled down
to figure out what to do with the boxes.

As she opened one of them up and saw the
worn books stacked neatly inside, she picked up one of them to
take a look. On its dog eared cover, were a man and woman
clutching each other while in what looked to be a typhoon on a
ship. Romances definitely weren't her thing because why read it,
when you could live it cause there were plenty of horny guys
standing around including those in between work to keep any woman
busy.

If she wasn't choosy of course, she
added.

But none of them were Royal and none of
them were the man she wanted.

Royal had been cleaning out the basement
which hadn't been opened up in some years he could tell by the
stale air that hit him when he'd opened the door. He'd cleared
out most of the boxes and saw that there had been some furniture
in a separate smaller room that almost resembled a
bunker.

A place where people retreated to when a
tornado warning had been issued and people were instructed to
take cover quickly. The Powers had instructed him offhandedly to
make sure there were supplies there in case that became necessary
while the center was operational to reduce their civil liability
of course. So he'd gone out and done that with a check they had
given him.

He had put in some mattresses on the floor
and some blankets in the corner, which looked fairly clean. Some
beanbag chairs that had been in storage for years still appeared
okay and some electric lanterns and batteries, as well as water
and nonperishable food were in a cabinet.

Anything that would get a group of people
through the few hours that they might have to take cover. Better
to be safe than sorry, he thought.

He returned up stairs and went to the
kitchen to rinse the dust off of his hands and get a bottle of
soda in the frig. As he took the cap off of and took a swallow,
he looked outside and saw that the sky had changed markedly.
Darkened clouds had pushed away the blue sky and the branches of
the trees were blowing wildly.

Royal walked to the door out onto the stoop
and noticed that dampness saturated the air, and he felt the
hairs on his body tingle. Damn, the weather in these parts never
let you forget that it could change in a moment's turn. He ran
out of the room and that's when he heard the static of the radio
turned on the room next door.

"There's a tornado…in effect for ….county
and south-eastern…county…Funnel clouds have been
spotted…"

But Royal didn't remain still enough to
listen.

"Elena…"

He called her name as he searched the
building for her.

She stuck her head out of the closet where
she had been working just as he raced into the
room.

"What's going on?"

He sighed.

"Tornado warning in effect…"

"But…"

She had been about to say that the weather
had been hot and steamy just a while ago…but she felt the
heaviness of the air even inside the building. She shot up on her
feet.

"Where's the storm cellar in this place
anyway?"

"In the kitchen…"

They headed there just as the wind began to
pick up even more and they could hear something banging outside.
Once in the kitchen, Royal opened the door and they both
descended into the basement as the lights began to
flicker.

"Are we going to be in the
dark?"

"No…there are lanterns down
there…"

"Good because I hate
darkness…"

They walked into the room in the back where
he had just fixed up the storm shelter.

"How long do you think it will
be?"

He went to grab for a lantern just as the
power flickered out.

"Could be a couple hours or so before it'll
be safe to go outside…"

She just nodded, and pulled her hair back,
before sitting down on one of the beanbag chairs.

"Nice…I head these were big back in the
day…"

He shrugged.

"We could be dodging debris outside…at
least it's safe in here…"

But as they sat together, he lit a couple
of lanterns which illuminated the room…she looked over at him as
he sat there watching her…her blood becoming as charged as the
storm outside. She licked her lips…as the adrenalin from rushing
to safety started to ebb…her body to relax.

She was safe…wasn't she? At least from the
storm outside but what about the one inside with
her?

Now, it was just the two of them all
alone…with the rest of the world somewhere far
away.